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An unsettled contract between the teachers' union and Nevada's Clark County School District could lead to pink slips for teachers, Dwight Jones, district superintendent, said Monday. The district is asking teachers to forgo pay raises already in place to help balance the 2011-12 budget, which is facing a $39 million shortfall. Officials say the shortfall could lead to the loss of about 1,000 teacher and staff jobs.

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Special-education programs in Oakland, Calif., schools will be the focus of a $4.3 million cut next year, as the district works to offset a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall. The cuts are expected to lead to larger class sizes, fewer teachers and specialists and maximum caseloads for staff who remain. The changes, announced during the last week of school, are drawing concern from critics who say the cuts could harm the education of students with special needs.

Educators at a recent forum in Kentucky, which is seen as an example of how partnerships between K-12 and higher education can help prepare students for college, expressed concerns about helping students meet a tougher academic bar being set by Common Core State Standards. Among the concerns identified was whether teachers are equipped with the content skills and knowledge to teach the new standards and whether educators across the state can agree on a definition of college readiness.

Self-mastery is a key component to happiness and can be taught to students, writes Randy Taran, founder of Project Happiness, a program aimed at empowering students to create happiness in their lives and the world. In this blog post, Taran suggests techniques and lessons -- from practicing meditation to teaching about kindness and the power of words -- aimed at helping students learn to manage powerful emotions in the classroom and in their lives.

Educator Jim Berman, who works with students at Delcastle Technical High School in Wilmington, Del., in this blog post touts the value of service learning as a strategy to help students use what they learn in class to help improve their communities. Berman describes a project he led in which students baked and packaged 10,000 cookies and distributed as tokens of appreciation to every police officer in the state. "There was a tangible result as a product of student learning, leadership and skill," he writes.

A program in Zanesville City Schools in Alabama is aimed at providing academic support to students who are economically disadvantaged. The 21st Century program is funded with Title I grants and includes after-school tutoring in reading and math, subjects in which many economically disadvantaged students are struggling.